Connect off-campus - University Library | University of Saskatchewan

How does off-campus access work?

The library uses an authentication system called EZProxy that uses your NSID and password to identify you as a current student, staff, or faculty member.

When you search using the library website (catalogue, USearch, e-journals search or LibGuides) you are automatically routed through EZproxy. Connecting from on campus, whether using a campus computer or your own laptop on the USask wireless network, does not require you to authenticate to get access to electronic resources. If you are located off-campus, you will be prompted to log in to access full-text versions of your search results. Beginning your search at the library website is the easiest, and preferred, way to gain full access to all licensed electronic resources.

Alumni and members of the public can access most licensed resources for occasional, non-commercial research and educational purposes while on-campus. Learn more about public access computers in the library.

The campus VPN (Virtual Private Network) is designed to allow access to restricted on-campus resources from off-campus. The VPN will not provide access to licensed electronic resources. While using the USask VPN, your computer will still be considered to be an off-campus device; you will need to use EZproxy and authenticate with your NSID in order to access electronic resources.

If you want to begin your search from a scholarly journal website, database, or Google Scholar you can still get full-text access but you need to make sure you are connecting through EZProxy. There are several ways you can do this.

Proxy Bookmarklet

To connect to any website through the USask proxy, install the USask proxy bookmarklet in your browser for quick access.

For most browsers, click, drag and drop the black button below to your bookmarks bar.

USask Proxy Bookmarklet

Bookmarks/Favourites bar instructions for

That's it! Now, when you hit a paywall while researching online simply click on the USask Proxy link in your bookmarks bar and the page will automatically reload to give you access to the full-text version if the library subscribes to it. You will be prompted to login with your NSID and password if you are not already logged in.

Below is a video tutorial of setting up the Proxy Bookmarklet:

How to use the USask Proxy Bookmarklet

Direct Persistent Links

When sharing a link to an electronic resource or creating a reading list you will want to use a link that will work both on and off-campus.

Use the form below to generate direct, persistent links to electronic resources using a DOI (digital object identifier) or a URL. You can use this tool to share direct, persistent links to in your course pages, documents, presentations and emails.

To abide by copyright regulations, it is strongly recommended that you share links to resources rather than copies of files. For more information, visit the copyright website.

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar has a built-in tool that allows you to access full-text search results through the USask proxy. To enable this tool in Google Scholar follow these steps:

Go to Google Scholar -> Settings -> Library links
Make sure the University of Saskatchewan checkbox is selected then Save

When you search Google Scholar, if the library has access, you will now see Get it @ USask Library on the right side of your list of search results. This link will take you to the full-text version via your USask library account. These preferences will be saved for all future searches on that computer.

Results available from other sources will have links from other institutions. Some results will have no link on the right side of the screen. These may be books you can borrow from the library or articles we can get for you using interlibrary loan.